Image Credit : Bangkok Post
PUBLISHED : 28 MAY 2017 AT 07:30
An esteemed Bangkok Post columnist,
long-time resident of Thailand and friend
and teacher
to so many Thais,
Robert Halliday passed away on Saturday following
a complication from pneumonia.
He was 74.
Known to his friends as Bob,
he was a big-hearted man whose
expertise included classical music,
literature, cinema and Thai street food.
A self-effacing man, he wrote about
these subjects with humour,
insight and flair under the quirky pseudonyms
Ung-Aang Talay, Plalai Faifa and
Jingjo Dam Na Buriram.
A true New York intellectual,
Bob worked at the Library of Congress and
wrote book reviews for the Washington Post
in the 1960s.
He corresponded with Samuel Beckett and
dined with John Cage.
During the Vietnam War, he came to Thailand
to work in refugee camps in the Northeast
and later settled in Bangkok.
He mastered the Thai language,
taught James Joyce at Chulalongkorn University
and became a staff member of Bangkok World
before it was taken over by the Bangkok Post.
He read, spoke, wrote and cursed Thai
as fluently as he did English.
To his friends, Bob's house was always open
and a sanctuary of knowledge.
For 30 years he screened movies for friends
every Sunday, first with 16mm film
and later Blu-ray, and the conversations
on cinema, books and music lasted well
into the night.
His circle of friends encompassed writers,
professors, bankers, journalists,
motorcycle taxi drivers, Michelin-starred chefs
and street food vendors,
a reflection of his warmth and generosity.
US-born Bob lived half a century of
his life as a Thai soul. He will be greatly missed.
